Laarni Almendrala RagazaMattel View-Master Virtual Reality Viewer Starter PackThe Mattel View-Master Virtual Reality Viewer is an inexpensive and innovative way to take your kids on an immersive journey through space, famous landmarks, or the great outdoors, without leaving your home.

Inexpensive. Informative. VR Viewer is rugged, easy to hold, and can be used with Google Cardboard apps. Immersive 360-degree views and ambient sounds.

Cons

Requires a smartphone. Comes with a single demo reel. Navigating through the Experience Pack apps can be difficult to master for young kids. Each Experience requires its own app. Glitchy in testing.

Bottom Line

The Mattel View-Master Virtual Reality Viewer is an inexpensive and innovative way to take your kids on an immersive journey through space, famous landmarks, or the great outdoors, without leaving your home.

Even though the concept of virtual reality (VR) has been around for some time, it's only in the last two years that we've really started to see actual products take advantage of modern VR technology. The most notable ones so far are the Oculus Rift, the Samsung Gear VR, and of course, Google Cardboard. With the exception of Cardboard, these are pricey devices, and definitely meant for grownup entertainment. Mattel has partnered with Google to change that, and the View-Master Virtual Reality Viewer ($29.99) succeeds in bringing VR technology to a much younger audience at an affordable price.

Aimed at kids 7 and older, the View-Master works with a compatible smartphone to offer an immersive experience in exploring wildlife, space, and landmark destinations. It's a sturdy device that can handle the bumps that come with kids, but it showed some glitches in testing, and some of the menu options can be confusing, even to adults. And if your kid doesn't have a smartphone, you're going to have to give up yours whenever they want to use the device. But my sons Jake, 11, and Matt, 7, were impressed with what the View-Master VR Viewer has to offer, and weren't bothered by the problems we encountered along the way. For them, and for most children, I imagine, the View-Master is a really cool way to learn more about the world through technology.

Design and FeaturesWe tested the View-Master VR Starter Pack, which includes the VR Viewer device and a Preview Reel. The VR Viewer measures 9.5 by 3.2 by 5.5 inches (HWD) and weighs about 1.5 pounds. It resembles an oversized pair of swim goggles, and bears the distinct red-and-black color combo of the original View-Master. There is a band of white around the device, and an orange lever on the right side. A latch at the top opens the Viewer to reveal the slot in which you place a compatible smartphone. The VR Viewer works with the Apple iPhones 5s and later, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and later, as well as other Android phones (you can check out the full list here). According to Mattel, you can also use the VR Viewer with any app that supports Google Cardboard.

The included Preview Reel resembles the film reel that was used with the original View-Master, only it's made of hard plastic and doesn't actually get inserted into the VR Viewer. Instead, you frame the Preview Reel in the View-Master's field of vision to get things started. In order to get the full experience, you'll have to buy VR Experience Packs ($14.99 each) and download the relevant app for each. There are currently three packs available: Destinations, which takes you to New York's Liberty Island, the Mayan city of Chichen Itza, and the Tower of London; National Geographic: Wildlife, which takes you to the Australian Outback, the Amazon, and the African Savanah; and Space, which explores every planet in the solar system, as well as the vastness of the universe beyond our planet.

Setup and Performance You need to download at least one of the VR Experience apps to your smartphone to start using the VR Viewer. I downloaded all three on my iPhone 5s, and started with the Destination Experience app. I opened the app, and followed the setup instructions. When the app launches, you're asked for a Pass Card from a VR Experience Pack, or you can choose Demo Reel. Once I chose the latter, I was instructed to hold the VR Viewer to my face and point it toward the Preview Reel. When I did, a 3D image popped up—in this case, the Parthenon. And when I clicked the toggle on the side of the Viewer, the app brought me to the Acropolis.

The 360-degree view is indeed amazing. Turn in any direction, or even look up or down, and it's like you're standing inside the Parthenon. However, while there are moving images within the view, you yourself can only turn in one spot. You can't, say, walk forward or back and move through the scene in the app.

A red information icon pops up when you turn in a certain direction; click on it by pushing down the lever on the VR Viewer, and text appears that explains what you are looking at. The explanation comprises one or two sentences, and is simple enough for kids to read easily and understand. In some Experience Packs, like Wildlife, there are even short videos. Another red icon takes you to a different part of the experience. In the Destinations app, that meant exploring different sides of the Acropolis, the Peisistratus Gate, and Athena and Poseidon's Temple.

Make sure that you have your smartphone's volume turned on, as there's a cool sound component for each scene. Audio consists of ambient sounds (birds trilling in the trees, or a light wind blowing, for example) and a little music for the intro, depending on which Experience pack you're using.

Point the VR Viewer down to the ground, and you see options to mute or unmute the sound, move back to the main Destinations menu to explore another place, and access the Main Menu. Inexplicably, when you select Main Menu, it doesn't take you anywhere. Instead, you see instructions in the VR Viewer to remove the phone from the headset. I also noticed that every Experience Pack has a different set of menus and a different way to access them. For instance, Destinations takes you to the Parthenon first. To get to the other destinations, you have to click on the Back button on the ground. In Wildlife, however, you can choose which kind of wildlife you want to check out when you launch the app. In Space, you have to point the VR Viewer down and pull the lever to see the menu options.

Also, in several instances when using the Destinations and Wildlife apps, they would suddenly stop working, and all I saw in the VR Viewer was a view of my iPhone home screen. I then had to open up the VR Viewer, take out my phone, and relaunch the app to use it again. Hopefully Mattel will fix these glitches in future updates. I also realized that you need to have ample light in order for the VR Viewer to detect the demo reel. When I tried it the first time out of direct light in my kitchen at night, the VR Viewer couldn't find it. And using the Experience apps can be a major drain on your smartphone's battery. Mine went from 90 to 60 percent after trying one of the Experiences loaded on the demo reel for 15 minutes.

That said, both Jake and Matt had a blast using the VR Viewer. I had to walk them through the initial setup and app launch, but they quickly got the hang of it. I cautioned the boys not to walk around while using the VR Viewer, or risk a trip to the emergency room. They both had no trouble figuring out where to click and how to move through the different scenes, although they too were confused by the menu options. They were blown away by the spectacular views in each scene, and couldn't get enough of turning every which way and looking up and down to take in every angle. They eagerly read aloud the information for each scene, but were frustrated when they couldn't get up close to some of the objects they saw.

Conclusion Of all the so-called educational toys available today, the Mattel View-Master VR Viewer is one of the more innovative ones I've seen. It combines forward-thinking technology and a simple form factor to create a unique and entertaining way to teach kids about the world around them. The VR Viewer itself is rugged, and the scenes in each of the Experience apps are intricately rendered. I just wish that there was a single app, rather than a different one for each Experience Pack, and I am hoping that the performance glitches that I encountered will be fixed in a future firmware update. Overall, the VR Viewer gives a lovely nod to its past iteration while setting itself firmly in the technology of the here and now. And for a list price that's less than $30, it's a wonderful way for your kids to immerse themselves in a different world without even leaving the house.

Mattel View-Master Virtual Reality Viewer Starter Pack

Bottom Line: The Mattel View-Master Virtual Reality Viewer is an inexpensive and innovative way to take your kids on an immersive journey through space, famous landmarks, or the great outdoors, without leaving your home.

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About the Author

Laarni Almendrala Ragaza is the Managing Editor for the Hardware team. She is in charge of reviewing and testing desktops, laptops, netbooks, monitors, external hard drives, components (such as CPUs and graphics card), and peripheral devices, as well as keeping a motley group of lead analysts happy.
Laarni started her career with PC Magazine in ... See Full Bio

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